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Byzantine and Modern Greek Perceptions of the Crusades

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Palgrave Advances in the Crusades

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Abstract

Imperial ideology had a great impact on the perception of the crusading movement by the Byzantines. Political theory in Byzantium had a strong theological dimension: God wished Christ’s believers to live in one state, ruled by the Roman (Byzantine) emperor. The spiritual significance that was attached to the emperor, the empire and its capital city, had a decisive influence on Byzantine foreign policy. Its principal concerns were twofold: the security of the empire and its capital; and recognition of the emperor’s claim to be the supreme overlord of the Christian world and the empire’s claim to be the unique state endorsed by God. This imperial ideology was consolidated in the late tenth and early eleventh century, when the Byzantine state reached the peak of its territorial expansion and material wealth.1

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Notes

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  1. Eleni Sakellariou
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  1. Cardiff University, UK

    Helen J. Nicholson (Reader in History) (Reader in History)

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Sakellariou, E. (2005). Byzantine and Modern Greek Perceptions of the Crusades. In: Nicholson, H.J. (eds) Palgrave Advances in the Crusades. Palgrave Advances. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230524095_12

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